To wash or not to wash eggs? That is the ?

[21hens-incharge]

you should not have to wash your eggs. chickens take great care with their eggs. if they are pooping on the eggs then they probably have worms. and the treatment for that is simple. you should do this to your chickens once a month. give them diatomaceous earth in their coop and in their food

There is a lot of debate on whether DE actually treats worms in chickens.

It is a matter of preference for me.
I prefer to have a fecal test done and then treat if needed with a known effective product.

 

[OnnieMae]

I use every egg no matter how dirty. Most of the time it is just mud, not poop. I will wipe them off but I don't wash them until I am about to use them.

I do feed eggs to my chickens. I boil and peel them and then mash them into mush. I crush the shells and dry them in the oven. I add the egg mush to their feed as a treat and I add the dried egg shells to their oyster shells.

I don't feed my chickens anything that resembles a egg as I did hear that they might start eating their eggs. I don't know if that is true or not but there is no point taking the chance.

 

[rdcowman]

please when you say you feed them back do you put the raw egg out in a cup for them ? how do you feed it?

What i do is just drop the egg on the ground and they will go running to it! Mine LOVE it!! They eat every bit of it.

 

[RWise]

please when you say you feed them back do you put the raw egg out in a cup for them ? how do you feed it?

I may just toss them at a tree trunk, or a rock (these grow very well here) as long as they break (which can be hard with these eggs) the birds will clean them up. If I do anything to the shell, I step on it.
I used to bake and crumble the shells, and scramble the eggs, all unnecessary. You certainly can cook them if you wish, but the girls dont care.

 

[Frazzemrat1]

Regarding washing: When I gather my eggs, I leave them on the counter until I have a dozen. Once I have a dozen, I wash the dirty ones only and fill a carton and give them away at work. The ones I steam for my breakfast, sometimes they're washed, sometimes not.
Regarding my chickens eating eggs... Nobody has done it yet, unless it was the few shell-less eggs I've gotten. Otherwise, I have fed eggs to my chickens, either by doing as @RWise said, and throwing them against a tree (usually the absolutely filthy ones) or, I've even hard boiled a batch and then mashed them in the shell and fed them back when they cooled. The chickens love it!

 

[campheadgirl]

I have been doing this based on the advice of others on here. Scrambled eggs are often recommended as a protein treat for chickens and ducks and crushed eggshells may be a good calcium supplement in addition to oyster shell. I try not to throw much of anything away. I may re-evaluate if I ever have an egg eater, but crushed and cooked they aren't exactly recognizable.

I have feed scrambled eggs, shell and all, back to the chickens. I crush the shells then add to scrambled eggs as I cook them. This gives them protein and some extra calcium. So far no egg eaters.

 

[Arya28]

Ok, so. Eggs have a natural bloom on the outside of the shell which protects them, as long as that bloom is not washed off. Once you rinse eggs, that bloom will no longer protect them. If you don't wash eggs, you don't have to refrigerate them. We usually let ours sit out, and don't wash them, until we either refrigerate them, or eat them. Right before we eat our eggs we wash them off, in WARM water.

If you wash eggs in cold water, eggs will absorb bacteria through the shell.

If you wash eggs in warm water, it will release bacteria.

Always wash eggs in warm water.

In Europe I don't think eggs are ever put in the fridge, but we live in the US and we do sell them. The rules and regulations in the US about eggs, IMO, are ridiculous. But nonetheless they are the rules, and they have to be rinsed before they are sold. So the ones we sell, we immediately rinse and put in the fridge. Once they are rinsed, they should go directly in the fridge because that bloom will no longer protect them from warm temperatures.

So short answer- if you aren't selling them, don't rinse them until you eat them and you don't need to refrigerate them. If you sell them, they can sit out as long as you want UNTIL YOU RINSE THEM, and then they need to be refrigerated (if you are in the US).

I know, this can get complicating. Anyway, I hope this helps!!